Damien Lucas

After a few days playing I am still left wondering what exactly Infinity Ward were trying to achieve here.

Was it to produce a single-player movie game and keep the CoD juggernaut ticking along or was it a failed attempt to push the boundaries deeper into space and the future?

Don’t get me wrong both the single player and multiplayer are high quality in their own right.

But having played, thoroughly enjoyed and rated DICE’s Battlefield 1 9.5/10 recently the benchmark was high loading up CODIW.

It’s slick, fast, accomplished online and off and the graphics are great.

But I am left with this nagging feeling it should have been a lot more than that.

Seeing what could have been done is actually a touch frustrating and I was not surprised to learn that the Infinite Warfare first-weekend player count is just one-quarter of Black Ops 3 as word spreads fast.

A lot of the enjoyment level of IW will come down to preference of course and there is a certain familiarity about the COD games which has the more casual gamer coming back time and again regardless.

In a straight shootout, Battlefield 1 wins every time.

Damien Lucas, gaming columnist

There’s nothing wrong with that either, in fact it is ideal if you just want a game to jump on for a quick multiplayer blast with friends.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect big advancements in the series, particularly for the more involved gamers.

To that end the biggest difference in IW is that for the first time there is weapon crafting and what seems to be a very deliberate play by Infinity Ward to reward players for playing different match-types.

There is no denying that CoD remains a slick and familiar shooter that still has that pulling power and relative longevity.

Those searching for an altogether more substantial experience may be left wanting, though, and like me wondering what might have been. In a straight shootout, Battlefield 1 wins every time.